This morning I was speaking to Bob, our guest, around our campfire. We spoke about life as a guide, come manager of a bush camp, with your wife in a remote corner of the Lower Zambezi National park in Zambia. It all sounds so wonderful and romantic. The reality is quite different, the African bush is an unforgiving place which smiles and shows off its beauty to those that look for it. Trying to find these moments of beauty in between all the harshness, is a full time job for a guide.
Bob described how he was in a deep sleep when he heard two distinct gun shots which woke him in the early hours of the morning. He then couldn’t go back to sleep as the hippos were on there way back from their night feeding, calling as they made sure their territories were re-established for the day. What Bob doesn’t know is, those two gunshots were in fact me. I was running around at 3:00am in the morning, chasing a honey-badger out of the kitchen. I had thrown two stones onto the corrugated iron roof. The late-night party started at around 1:30am and only ended when a hyena, also wondering what’s happening at the camp that night, intervened and chased my Ratel friend out of camp. My respect for this super creature has diminished in recent times to just another thief in Africa. It was good to see the hyena get the upper hand.
Leana interrupted our conversation with the famous Old Mondoro oats. As the three of us sat there watching the sun rise over the Zambezi the rest of the guests made there appearances. Now Old Mondoro is not a typical camp in Africa, the tents are more like a big stoep with canvas walls that come down, which the staff and ourselves completely rebuilt at the beginning of the year. We moved the showers out to under the stars and added a splash tub which would be used later in the year to cool down. I took my first midday cold shower today and its not even October yet. The camp is basic, which is great as there are less things to break. When you have to get things fixed and there’s only a once a week delivery from Lusaka, you start to become ingenious in how you approach problems out in the bush. It usually involves wire, inner-tubing and cable ties. Like everything in Africa, if you cannot fix it with a hammer you’re not hitting it hard enough.
To fill up our little camp doen’t take much, 4 guests and we are at 50% occupancy. It’s a small intimate camp, focused more on the none motorized activities; walking and canoeing. Bob and his wife Nancy, were going walking this morning, which involves a small drive out of camp these days as a Buffalo bull has taken up residence close to tent Number 4. All this activity and it wasn’t even 06:30 yet and I only got a few hours rest last night. I would not have it any other way…
